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‘One Woman Wikileaks’ Behind Panama Papers Assassinated Days After Receiving Threats

Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who spearheaded the ‘Panama Papers’ offshore tax evasion leaks, was killed Monday by a car bomb while driving near her home village of Bidnija in northern Malta. The explosion destroyed her rented Peugot 108, throwing debris into a nearby field. Police have opened a murder inquiry, and the government of Malta has asked the U.S. FBI for assistance in the case.

Caruana Galizia – a popular blogger whose website often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of Malta’s newspapers, was referred to by Politico as a “one-woman Wikileaks,” as she became an enemy to those in both the establishment and the European underworld.

Most recently, her work spotlighted offshore companies linked to Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and two of his closest aides, in conjunction with the sale of Maltese passports and cash received from the government of Azerbaijan.

The journalist had filed a complaint with police two weeks ago after receiving personal threats, according to local media reports.

The Mirror reports:

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who faced accusations of wrong-doing by Caruana Galizia earlier this year, denounced her killing.

He called it a “barbaric attack on press freedom”.

Muscat – who bullshitted his way through the press conference, added “our country deserves justice,” calling for national unity. “I will not rest until I see justice done in this case… “Everyone knows Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine, both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way.”

“The only remedy for anyone who felt slandered was through the courts.”

Could that sound more like a guy covering up the assassination of a journalist about to wreck his career and send him to jail?

BBC reports that Caruana Galizia’s death comes four months after Mr Muscat’s Labour Party won an election he called early because of the blogger’s allegations linking him and his wife to the Panama Papers scandal.

The couple denied claims that they had used secret offshore bank accounts to hide payments from Azerbaijan’s ruling family.

A vigil was held in Caruana Galizia’s name Monday night

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NY Club Owner Asked To Deny Weinstein Masturbation Story, Instead Confirms Sticky Aftermath

One of the more bizarre allegations levied against accused rapist and disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is that he masturbated into a potted plant in front of TV news anchor Lauren Sivan in 2007.

Sivan said Harvey lured her to the basement of Socialista, a Cuban restaurant in Greenwich Village, NY. Weinstein had invested in, where he tried to kiss her. When she refused his advances, Weinstein “simply began to pleasure himself” – asking the TV anchor to “just stand there and shut up” before he reportedly ejaculated into a potted plant.

From potted plant to cookware

When former owner of Socialista, Armin Amiri was reached for comment by The Hollywood Reporter, he says Weinstein’s lawyers asked him to deny the incident. Instead, Amiri confirmed that it happened – though he says Weinstein actually ejaculated into a cooking pot, not a potted plant, which was later found on the stove.

What I remember about this incident is that my sous chef came into my office, furious, telling me that ‘some fat fuck’ saying he’s an owner — he didn’t know the name — had come into the kitchen with a woman and shoved a $100 bill at him and told him to get out. It was like 1:30 in the morning and he’d been the only one still there. The chef told me he was going to quit.

I went to check things out and saw Harvey soon after, fixing his belt, behind the bar. I never saw the woman. My chef and I go to the kitchen. He picks up a pot that had been placed back on the stove. It had been defiled. It was so bizarre. We couldn’t believe it happened.

 

(full statement below)

So, accused rapist and all around sexual predator Harvey Weinstein allegedly lured local TV reporter Lauren Sivan into the basement of a restaurant he was an investor in, paid the chef $100 to go away – telling him he was ‘an owner,’ and jerked off into a pot when she rebuffed his advances – which he then placed back onto the stove before zipping up and walking out.

Not even close to OK Harvey…

I won’t go so far as to say Weinstein was engaging in a festive night of #SpiritCooking, which he’s at least one or two degrees of separation from given his close friendship with the Clintons – who are in turn friends with noted occultist Marina Abramovic (who Tony Podesta has given money to, who was invited to Hillary Clinton’s Campaign launch, whose art Hillary Clinton placed in US embassies around the world, who Hillary wanted to invite to a lunch event, who donated the maximum $2700 to Hillary’s campaign, and who said in a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) that her spirit cooking dinners in private homes are not art.). While Harvey’s sperm receptacle was probably chosen out of practicality – the guy did leave semen, in a cooking pot, on a stove.

Not to mention, Harvey sure seems to love his highbrow bodily excretion art… or at least this is what the sight of a naked woman makes Weinstein think of: 

George has a dog

His NAME is Rocky

And he pees

And poops

WHEN I walk in th room

Sounds like Rocky doesn’t like Harvey very much.

(Amiri’s full statement to THR)

“Last week, after Lauren Sivan came forward with her awful story about Harvey Weinstein and the ‘potted plant’ at Socialista, he contacted me. We hadn’t spoken in years. He told me he needed a statement about his involvement in Socialista, which I said I’d be happy to provide, and I did, and then his lawyers said he needed one saying I hadn’t seen anything that night. I told them I knew something happened that night, I just hadn’t known what specifically. I couldn’t make a statement absolving him because when she came forward, my memory clicked.

Harvey had been an investor in Socialista and I had appeared in one of the films he distributed, ‘Factory Girl.’ What I remember about this incident is that my sous chef came into my office, furious, telling me that ‘some fat fuck’ saying he’s an owner — he didn’t know the name — had come into the kitchen with a woman and shoved a $100 bill at him and told him to get out. It was like 1:30 in the morning and he’d been the only one still there. The chef told me he was going to quit.

I went to check things out and saw Harvey soon after, fixing his belt, behind the bar. I never saw the woman. My chef and I go to the kitchen. He picks up a pot that had been placed back on the stove. It had been defiled. It was so bizarre. We couldn’t believe it happened.

I couldn’t prove any of it so I never confronted him. Harvey was an investor and it was around the time he married Georgina Chapman.

My heart goes out to all the brave women who have come forward. Once Ms. Sivan spoke out, and after being contacted by several media outlets, I’ve felt responsible to state what I remembered.”

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Amazon Murders America’s Oldest Brick And Mortar Hardware Store, Elwood Adams $AMZN

Jeff Bezos, 20 years and $85 billion later

Bald business tycoon and possible alien Jeff Bezos has slayed yet another mom and pop store on his quest for world domination – driving America’s oldest brick & mortar hardware store, Elwood Adams, into the abyss.

Established in 1782, the Worcester, Massachusetts store survived the Great Depression, both world wars, and fierce competition from the likes of Sears, Wal Mart and ACE Hardware – only to be bested by the internet.

“I think Amazon or the larger big-box stores have probably just been too much to compete against,” Worcester city manager Ed Augustus told CBS.

For many brick and mortars suffering similarly, it’s time to adapt or die. Many a horse n’ buggy-supply store undoubtedly met a similar fate when Henry Ford started selling automobiles on every corner. A century later, Kodak refused to go digital while Canon and Nikon and Sony drank their milkshake, and Blockbuster fell to cheaper and more convenient Dropbox and Netflix.

That said, with Amazon’s entry into freightdelivery and manufacturing with their ‘Amazon Basics‘ brand, one has to wonder how mom & pop can compete with a monopoly that controls its entire supply chain.

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UberEats Explosive Growth Accounts For Nearly 10 Pct Of Gross Bookings

Ride sharing company Uber has had a rocky 12 months – shedding top management positions, outsting its CEO, losing its license to operate in London, and battling a self-driving car lawsuit with Google over poaching trade secrets when they hired a former engineer from Google subsidiary Waymo.

And while the beleaguered Uber has been fighting uphill battles, one extremely bright spot for the company is its Uber Eats food delivery service app – which was launched two years ago, and accounted for nearly 10% of the company’s gross bookings worldwide in the 2nd quarter. The service is on track to exceed $3bn in gross sales this year, according to the Financial Times.

During the second quarter of this year, UberEats accounted for 8-10 per cent of global gross bookings, which implies $700m-$870m of gross turnover for the unit. Uber’s total gross bookings were $8.7bn for the period.
By comparison, GrubHub, the US food delivery company valued at $4.1bn, reported $880m of gross food sales during the second quarter.
While Uber still derives the majority of its revenues from its transportation services app, UberEats has been growing faster than the core business.

UberEats operates in 29 countries and is on track for a rapid expansion into nearly 200 cities by the end of this year. The service is competing with Amazon’s restaurant delivery service – also launched two years ago, as well as GrubHub, Postmates, DoorDash, and several other smaller companies. Facebook is even getting in on the action, launching a food delivery service last week.

That said, UberEats is still unprofitable in most areas, and faces low margins amidst high competition. One major advantage it has, however, is its fleet of over 2m Uber drivers around the world, who can carry passengers or food.

I can tell you from personal experience – our family has been ordering food delivery through various services for around two years. DoorDash and Postmates were our go-to for a long time, however Uber and Amazon came to our city and offered much lower prices for the actual delivery, as well as more professional drivers who don’t get lost. We were bait-n-switched into ‘Postmates Unlimited’ – $10 / month for free delivery – only to be hit with a brand new 20% fee on all orders. Never again.

The user interface on both the UberEats app and their website is the best by far, and their customer service is amazing.

So while Uber navigates choppy seas of red tape, lawsuits, and management turnover, their food-delivery service is sailing smoothly.

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iFail – Older iPhone 7 Outselling iPhone 8 According To Channel Checks $AAPL

According to a channel check reported by KeyBanc Capital, Apple’s ($AAPL) older iPhone 7 models are outselling the iPhone 8, which received a tepid response when it launched at the end of September.

Apple customers camp outside of Sydney’s flagship Apple store on the first day the iPhone 8 went on sale in Sydney, Australia, September 22, 2017. AAP/Joel Carrett/via REUTERS

And with Apple’s upcoming premium iPhone “X” model set to launch in a few weeks, it’s no surprise that nobody wants to pay $699 for an iPhone 8, when the only real improvements over the $549 iPhone 7 are wireless charging and facial recognition.

Many respondents indicated that a meaningful portion of customers are buying iPhone 7 in lieu of the new iPhone 8, given the lack of significant enhancements in the new phone,noted analyst John Vinh of KeyBanc.

Inside:

Vinh went on to write “”Feedback from stores indicate customers are waiting to purchase the iPhone X or to compare the iPhone X before buying the iPhone 8.”

“Feedback from stores indicate customers are waiting to purchase the iPhone X or to compare the iPhone X before buying the iPhone 8”

iPhone X

The much anticipated X will be a glass and stainless steel device with an edge-to-edge display, and will begin shipping November 3 priced at $999.

If you want to explore the differences in iPhones in greater detail, check out this Bloomberg article.

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Assange Trolls US Gov Over 50,000% Bitcoin Gain As Putin Launches ‘CryptoRuble’

One day after JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon chimped out again over Bitcoin – claiming governments around the world will “crush” the crypto-currency, Julian Assange took to Twitter to ‘thank’ Senators McCain and Lieberman for an ‘illegal banking blockade’ against Wikileaks, causing the whistleblower organization to invest in Bitcoin for a return on investment north of 50,000%. 

Meanwhile, Russia appears to have embraced the inevitable shift to virtual currencies – launching their own ‘Crypto-Ruble,’ days after announcing a ban on websites selling virtual currencies.

Speaking at a conference on financial market derivatives, Shvetsov said while referring to the household “We cannot stand apart. We cannot give direct and easy access to such dubious instruments for retail (investors),”

The central bank of Russia is seeing a rise in crypto-currencies because of high returns from buying into such instruments. Some investors are yet afraid what will be the outcome if their businesses do not flourish.

As CoinTelegraph reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially stated that Russia will issue its own ‘CryptoRuble’ at a closed door meeting in Moscow, according to local news sources.

The news broke through Minister of Communications Nikolay Nikiforov.

According to the official, the state issued cryptocurrency cannot be mined and will be issued and controlled and maintained only by the authorities.

The CryptoRubles can be exchanged for regular Rubles at any time, though if the holder is unable to explain where the CryptoRubles came from, a 13 percent tax will be levied.

The same tax will be applied to any earned difference between the price of the purchase of the token and the price of the sale. Nikiforov said:

“I confidently declare that we run CryptoRuble for one simple reason: if we do not, then after 2 months our neighbors in the EurAsEC will.”

While the announcement means that Russia will enter the cryptocurrency world, it is in no way an affirmation or legalization of Bitcoin or any other decentralized cryptocurrency. On the contrary, Putin quite recently called for a complete ban on all cryptocurrencies within Russia. The statement from Putin seemed apparently to contradict the earlier comments from other ministers who seemed pro-crypto, but only with regulations, as well as Putin’s recent meetings with Buterin and others.

 

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Flashback: Barbara Walters Shames Pedo Victim Corey Feldman On National TV For ‘Damaging An Entire Industry’

Six years ago, former child star Corey Feldman admitted that he and fellow child actor Corey Haim, who died in 2010 from Pneumonia, were sexually molested by adult males throughout Hollywood during their time in the limelight. Haim is said to have received far more brutal abuse – raped at age 11 by a producer, while Feldman was groomed and abused by a man employed by his father at the age of 15.

In a 2011 interview with ABC, Feldman said Pedophilia was the Number 1 problem for child stars, saying “I was surrounded by [pedophiles] when I was 14 years old. … Didn’t even know it. It wasn’t until I was old enough to realize what they were and what they wanted … till I went, Oh, my God. They were everywhere.

And in a 2016 interview – days after actor Elijah Wood gave an interview in which he said “Hollywood has a Pedophilia Problem,” Feldman revealed that he was ‘molested and passed around by men in the industry. The former child actor has refused to name his abusers, citing legal reasons.

Martin Weiss (left)

Feldman has also written about Corey Haim’s time with Hollywood child-actor manager Martin Weiss, an agent primarily for children who appeared on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel – who enjoyed sleepovers and road trips with his clients. Weiss was arrested in 2011 and plead no contest to eight felony counts of molesting young actors – sentenced to a year in jail but released for time served.

Weiss raped a child actor 30 to 40 times until the age of 15, according to the police report. In an affidavit obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the victim told police that Weiss said what they were doing was ‘common practice in the entertainment industry.’

Weiss was caught when the 15 year old victim went to his apartment in November of 2011 and recorded a conversation in which Weiss admitted to the abuse.

Barbara’s Genuine Outrage – at Feldman…

In a 2013 interview on The View, Feldman told hosts Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd, Jenny McCarthy and Nick Offerman that “some of the richest, most powerful people” in Hollywood were pedophiles still operating in the industry:

Corey Feldman: There are people that were the people that did this to both me and Corey that are still working, they’re still out there, and they’re some of the richest, most powerful people in this business – and they do not want me saying what I’m saying right now.

Barbara Walters: Are you saying that they’re pedophiles?

Corey Feldman: Yes

Barbara Walters: And that they’re still in this business?

Corey Feldman: Yes

After telling host Sherri Shepherd that child acting is a “many feathered bird – be careful what you wish for. Don’t go into it with naievity,” Barbara Walters exclaimed “You’re damaging an entire industry!

Walters’ comment echoed her defense of Woody Allen, days after adopted daughter Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter to the New York Times, accusing Allen of sexually abusing her as a 7 year old child. Walters suggested Farrow had waited to come public to hurt Allen’s chances of winning an Oscar that year, adding “the fact that he likes younger women (in reference to Allen’s marriage to the adopted daughter of ex-wife Mia Farrow), that has nothing to do with.”

And when it came to Corey Feldman, Barbara Walters shamed a man on national TV who had the courage to stand up and tell the world about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of Hollywood pedophiles – seemingly more concerned about her industry than a victim of its most vile and degenerate predators. The “richest, most powerful people” in the business.

Watch below:

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Historic Fire-Ravaged NorCal ‘Not Even Close to Being out of this Emergency’

Over the last week, raging fires in Northern California have claimed at least 31 lives, officially making it the deadliest week for wildfires in the state’s history.

With entire neighborhoods inaccessible after being burned to the ground, however, authorities say that number is likely to climb – as many residents, senior citizens in particular, were caught completely off guard by the fire’s rapid spread and intensity.

County officials said some neighborhoods they’ve flown over are ‘totally decimated, with not one single structure still standing.’

Santa Rosa was hit particularly hard. The LA Times reports an estimated 2,834 homes and 400,000 square feet of commercial space has been destroyed – even burning down the city’s new fire station.

“We are not even close to being out of this emergency,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

Shirlee Zane, one of the district supervisors for Sonoma County, says she flew over communities that “looked like war zones. They looked like somebody had bombed them.”

“The air quality is very dangerous right now,” she tells NPR. “It’s thick, with brown smoke. People cannot really go outside. It’s really not safe. You see a lot of people going around with face masks.”

Wayne Peterson of Sonoma described the air as “acrid.”

“I’m wearing the mask because I’ve been here two or three days now, I live here,” Petersen was quoted by The Associated Press as saying. “It’s starting to really affect my breathing and lungs so I’m wearing the mask. It’s helping.”

While the cause of the fires has not yet been determined, authorities noted that strong winds knocked trees into power lines, which may have sparked the fires.

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Audio Of Cuban ‘Sonic Attack’ Released – It’s Awful

The Associated Press (AP) has obtained a recording of the ‘sonic weapon’ U.S. Embassy workers say they heard in Havana shortly before suffering a variety of physical ailments. 22 Americans are ‘medically confirmed’ to have been affected by the sonic attacks, which began last year and are considered ‘ongoing’ – with the most recent attack in late August.

Full-spectrum analysis shows that the sound is comprised of roughly ’20 or more frequencies, or pitches,’ which combine to sound like a mass of crickets in an undulating whine – described by some as ‘colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard’ effect.

Listen here at your own risk – apparently listening to a recording of the sound isn’t dangerous when played at normal levels through phone or computer speakers:

You may have just been MK Ultra’d.

The U.S. says embassy workers suffered a variety of hearing, cognitive, visual, balance, sleep and other ailments after being exposed to the waves.

AP reports:

The recordings from Havana have been sent for analysis to the U.S. Navy, which has advanced capabilities for analyzing acoustic signals, and to the intelligence services, the AP has learned. But the recordings have not significantly advanced U.S. knowledge about what is harming diplomats.

Cuba has denied involvement or knowledge of the attacks. The U.S. hasn’t blamed anyone and says it still doesn’t know what or who is responsible. But the government has faulted President Raul Castro’s government for failing to protect American personnel, and Nauert said Thursday that Cuba “may have more information than we are aware of right now.”

The 20 distinct frequencies form a series of ‘peaks’ that jump up from a baseline like ‘spikes,’ said AP.

“There are about 20 peaks, and they seem to be equally spaced. All these peaks correspond to a different frequency,” said Kausik Sarkar, an acoustics expert and engineering professor at The George Washington University who reviewed the recording with the AP.

Those frequencies might be only part of the picture. Conventional recording devices and tools to measure sound may not pick up very high or low frequencies, such as those above or below what the human ear can hear. Investigators have explored whether infrasound or ultrasound might be at play in the Havana attacks.

Cuba says it’s launched an ‘exhaustive and priority’ investigation into the attacks, which they claim they have no idea about.

One wonders if not the Cubans, is Russia testing out a new toy?

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Bridgewater Bets On Italian Doom, Takes Out $713 Million Short Position

After Bridgewater was called by Jim Grant out for being a potential fraud, the algo-driven hedge fund run by Ray Dalio (who incorrectly predicted markets would tank if Trump won the election) has accumulated a “713 million wager against Italian financial stocks, its biggest disclosed bearish bet in Europe.”

This bet – against five banks and one insurance company, includes Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, and insurer Assicuraziono Generali.

Bridgewater hasn’t disclosed their reasoning for the short positions, however as ZeroHedge notes:

it likely has to do with recent proposed revisions to the ECB’s treatment of bad debt held on bank balance sheets. Under the ECB’s new proposal, banks will have to provision against the entire potential loss on newly-classified nonperforming loans that aren’t backed by collateral after two years. While details are still scarce and the ECB has promised to publish plans for existing bad loans, including “appropriate transitional arrangements,” by the end of the first quarter, Italian banks are expected to be hit hardest by the revised treatment of NPLs.

Why Italy? Because the country’s banking industry remains saddled with €318 billion in bad loans – a third of Europe’s total. Indeed, concerns about the impact of the ECB’s bad-loan proposal on the  earnings of European banks, prompted a 7% percent drop in an index of Italian banks in the six days through Tuesday, pulling Italy’s FTSE MIB Index down from two year highs. Italy’s FTSE Italia All-Share Banks Index has dropped 4.5 percent since the ECB’s Oct. 4 announcement that it plans to revise bad loan provisioning standards.

Let’s not forget

Italy’s largest bank, Monte Paschi received special permission from the Italian government and the EU to tap Italy’s Treasury instead of the European Central Bank for an 8.8 billion bailout.

So while the ECB has mandated that banks will need to be able to absorb losses from newly-classified nonperforming loans not backed up by collateral, no guidelines have been issued for existing bad loans – which the European Central Bank has promised to publish.

Scammy Bridgewater?

Jim Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer told Bloomberg he was “bearish” on Ray Dalio’s $160 billion Bridgewater, because the fund has become “less focused on investing, while the firm lacks transparency and has produced lackluster returns.”

More specifically:

  • Bridgewater has directly lent money to its auditor, KPMG, to which KPMH’s response is that “these lending relationships . . . do not and will not impair KMPG’s ability to exercise objective and impartial judgment in connection with financial statement audits of the Bridgewater Funds.”
  • Bridgewater has 91 ex-employees working at its custodian bank, Bank of New York.
  • Only two of Bridgewater’s 33 funds have a relationship with Prime Brokers. In these two funds, Bridgewater Equity Fund, LLC and Bridgewater Event Risk Fund I, Ltd., 99% of the investors are Bridgewater employees.
  • Opaque ownership concerns: “Two entities—Bridgewater Associates Intermediate Holdings, L.P. and Bridgewater Associates Holdings, Inc.—are each noted as holding 75% or more of Bridgewater.”
  • Why the massive, and expensive, ETF holdings: “The June 30 13-F report shows U.S. equity holdings of $10.9 billion. The top-16 holdings, worth $9.5 billion, or 87% of the reported total, come wrapped in ETFs, including the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF, the SPDR S&P500 ETF Trust and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF. Beyond the fact that Bridgewater reports holding few U.S. equities, you wonder why such a sophisticated shop would stoop to such a retail stratagem. Surely the Bridgewater brain trust could replicate the ETFs at a fraction of the cost that the Street charges.”
  • And perhaps most troubling, is the SEC in cahoots with Bridgewater? “Lorenz asked the SEC how Bridgewater’s answers comply with the requirement to “[p]rovide your fee schedule.” Via email, the agency replied, “Decline comment, thanks.

With its new short on Italian banks – even if Bridgewater redeems itself performance-wise, there are still many troubling aspects of the fund’s relationship to KPMG and the SEC.

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